Got a great start, 3rd row behind Rashaan Bahati...bout the only time I would see him or the front for the entire race. Funny, you race 90 minutes and in that time you can't see anything but a stream of dudes in front and a stream of dudes in back. Where the hell am I? No time, just move up, move up, move up.
The road after turn 2 was straight up Afghanistan. I actually saw pieces of the road flying up and hitting riders, we were tearing it up every lap. It didn't help that we did it Tour de France style and literally 20 abreast sometimes taking up the whole corn holed road.
Felt pretty good and just really concentrated on moving up and not clipping a pedal whilst doing the "Detroit Lean" in turn 3. Glad i brought 3 gels too...AND big bottles.
At this point in the post most of you (righfully so) are wondering when I am gonna get all overly dramatic and tell you some crap about how I almost died and my bike exploded but they gave me a new one just like the one I had in the pits and Frank Pipp asked me to lead him out (true)...that is this point right here. About halfway thru the race, I don't really know as the Time and Space Continuum was obviously bending for me, I went to what my bro calls "The Dark Place" where you have dug as far as you are gonna dig and you gotta decide if you are a man or a boy, a storm trooper or an EWOK, a grizzly bear or a dood with a bell. About that time Cool Hand Luke rolls up. I knew it was him cuz I heard his clunky ass steel bike a comin...
"N88dles!"
"yeah," pant, pant.
"How you doin?"
"Ah, (pause)...not feelin so hot, runnin outta steam yo."
"Deep breathes n88ds, deep breathes."
I got pretty wrapped up in racing and was forgetting not to blow myself up. Took some deep breathes and started thinkin about bears and storm troopers.
I really can't verbalize how fast this race was...I have yet to even finish a 1/2 TOAD race, so for old man noodles, that shit was outta control. I remember looking down at my computer a few times during the first few laps and thinking, "hmmm, doesn't feel like 33 mph. Wow! 194 beats per minute...that ain't good." Somehow, I made it to the magical point where they gods of laps change from time up to laps to go...unfortunately, for yours truly 15 was not so magic. After that, the laps crept by and as the pace would up I was feelin the elastic stretchin. Thankfully, about this time Dr. Teeth, Mr. Awesome, Dr. Mantel rolls up, "What d'ya say N88dles?" Looked like he was feeling pretty good, so, why not follow his wheel for awhile. Just what I needed...a solid wheel to follow. C. H. Luke rolls up as well, "n88ds, how much water you got? Dropped my bottles..." Little bit left, here you go.
I don't know what the hell happened to the other numb nuts in the pack but people started ridin like crash monkeys. I think there were 5-6 crashes in the last 10 laps and I was behind almost all of 'em. Most were in corners on the backside and in slow motion. Worst was in turn 2 and I had to "Nancy Kerrigan" it sliding sideways clipped out until my rear wheel caught.
I lost Mantel's wheel with 2 to go, and just put my head down and didn't get gapped. I finished, and sometimes that feels like 1st efn place.
Headed to Hollander fer beerz n a burg a friend texted me to ask how I finished...
"Pretty sure the winner had changed and boned the podium girl by the time I crossed the line..."
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